The Snappers Handled Trout... In 2010

Friday night, the Twins and Angels game was postponed due to rain. On Thursday night, Mike Trout launched two home runs and drove in five runs to help the Angels to a victory. Trout has become a rare, generational player. He debuted in 2011 as a 19-year-old. He was an All-Star, Rookie of the Year and runner up for the MVP the next year as a 20-year-old. He was the runner up for MVP in 2013. In 2014, he won his first MVP award. This year, he’s having an even better season. And he just turned 24 at the beginning of August. And, before the season he signed a six-year, $144.5 million contract that takes him through 2020, when he’ll become a free agent at age 29. Just imagine what that next contract might be!

We all know that his father, Jeff Trout, was the Twins fifth-round pick in 1983 out of the University of Delaware. That season, he played in the Midwest League, for Wisconsin Rapids. His manager that year was Charlie Manuel. In 1984, he jumped up to AA Orlando where he hit .285/.351/.378 (.729) with 17 doubles, seven triples and four home runs in 130 games. He returned to Orlando in 1985 and hit .279/.385/.398 (.783) with 20 doubles, three triples and three home runs in 95 games. He was 24 years old that season. He was back in Orlando in 1986 as well. He hit .321/.406/.451 (.857) with 22 doubles, four triples and seven home runs in 105 games. Certainly a solid season, but he never played pro ball again. In his pro career, he stole eight bases and was caught 15 times.

Safe to say that his son has outperformed him on the baseball field.

I remember the first time I decided to make the five hour trek from the Twin Cities to Beloit for some Midwest League action. Former Twins blogger Josh Johnson and I packed up and went to a Friday and Saturday game. We were excited to see Aaron Hicks, Danny Rams and Angel Morales among others. That Friday night game, Brian Dozier was the shortstop for the Beloit Snappers. After the game, he was promoted to Ft. Myers. Taking his spot on the Snappers roster and playing shortstop that second game was Danny Santana.

Ironically, the Snappers were playing the Cedar Rapids Kernels, then an affiliate of the Angels. The centerfielder for the Kernels was Mike Trout. Even then, as an 18-year-old, he stood out on the field. Obviously I’m not a scout, but I know the game of baseball, and you could just see his talent offensively and defensively.

I like to tell the story that I went in to the bathroom at Pohlman Stadium in Beloit in between innings, and I stood next to Trout at the urinals. Weird, maybe crude story, but true. I have strict rules about conversing in public facilities, but maybe I should have made an exception if only I had known how good he would become. Maybe even shake hands. Maybe not.

Trout was 18-years-old in the Midwest League and in 81 games he hit .362/.454/.526 (.979) with 19 doubles, seven triples and six home runs. He was the Kernels’ leadoff hitter. He also stole 45 bases in 54 attempts.

I couldn’t help but wonder how he did against Snappers/Twins pitchers during his time. Baseball-Reference doesn’t have the game logs for the minor leagues from 2010, so I went to milb.com and went through box scores. It was kind of a tedious activity, but for me, it was a fun walk down Twins prospect memory lane, reading names I hadn’t seen in quite some time.

The Snappers actually started their season in 2010 with a three game series in Cedar Rapids. Liam Hendriks was the Snappers Opening Day starter. He struck out Trout in their first inning matchup. In the third, Trout rolled back to Hendriks.

It was Tom Stuifbergen who faced Trout in the sixth inning. He struck him out looking. In the eighth inning, Steve Blevins gave up an infield single to Trout. In the bottom of the 10^th, with Kane Holbrooks on the mound, Trout grounded out to Dozier at shortstop for a fielder’s choice to end the game.

In that three –game series, Trout had just the one infield single in 13 at-bats.

I won’t dig into each of the games, but here is how Trout fared against the Snappers pitchers he faced before his July promotion to High-A.

• Liam Hendriks – 0-2 with a strikeout and groundout.
  
• Tom Stuifbergen – 0-1 with a strikeout
  
• Steve Blevins – 1-1 with a single
  
• Kane Holbrooks – 0-3 with two strikeouts and a groundout.
  
• Dan Osterbrock – 0-3 with two groundouts and a fly out
  
• Dakota Watts – 0-3 with a walk and three strikeouts (pretty good)
  
• Miguel Munoz – 2-11 with a walk, a single, and a three-run triple. Also three strikeouts.
  
• Eliecer Cardenas – 1-3 with a single and strikeout
  
• Jhon Garcia – 0-1 with a walk and a strikeout
  
• Peter Kennelly – 0-2 with two walks
  
• Brad Stillings – 4-10 with three singles, a double and a strikeout
  
• Chris Armstrong – 1-2 with a double.
  
• Matt Tone – 0-0 with a walk
  
• BJ Hermsen – 0-3 with a walk
  
• Michael Tonkin – 2-3 with a walk, two hit by pitches, a single and a strikeout
  

He played 13 games against the Snappers in 2010 and went 11-49 (unofficially), .225/.377/.306 (683).

In a mid-June appearance in Cedar Rapids, about an hour from his hometown, BJ Hermsen threw a complete game, one-hit shutout. He lost a perfect game bid when he walked Trout in the fourth inning. He lost a no-hitter in the eighth inning on a single.

Liam Hendriks made just six starts at the beginning of that 2010 season in Beloit. He was 2-1 with a 1.32 ERA. In 34 innings, he gave up just 16 hits, walked four and struck out 39. He debuted with the Twins as a 22-year-old a year later. Hendriks has faced Trout just once in the big leagues. He intentionally walked him. That’s probably never a bad strategy.

Michael Tonkin was a late-round draft pick of the Twins in 2008 and pitched in six games for the GCL Twins that season. He remained with the GCL Twins for 2009 as well. In 2010, Tonkin began the season with the Snappers as a starter. He made 12 starts (and one bullpen appearance) and went 3-6 with a 4.29 ERA. When the short-season began, he went to Elizabethton and posted a 1.08 ERA out of the bullpen. He made a full-time transition to the bullpen in 2011. He pitched in 48 games for the Snappers in 2011 and 22 more in 2012. It was important for him to get that small sample in 2012 because that’s when he really took off as a prospect. Tonkin has faced Trout four times in the big leagues. The All-Star is 1-2 with two walks against Tonkin.

Dakota Watts was a hard-throwing bullpen guy, though at times he struggled with his control. He was the Twins 16^th round pick in 2009 out of college. As a 22-year-old in 2010, he pitched in 30 games for the Snappers followed by 17 games with the Miracle. He even pitched in two games for AA New Britain. In 2011, 2012 and 2013, he split the seasons between the Miracle and Rock Cats. In 2014 and 2015, he has pitched in the independent American Association. Late in the season, he was signed by the Texas Rangers and pitched for High Desert.

Trout moved quickly through the Angels minor league system. Those other Angels affiliates played in different leagues than the Twins affiliates, so there were no other Trout vs. Twins minor league numbers to report.

Several of the pitchers mentioned above never pitched above the Midwest League, but they still have a pretty cool story to tell their kids and grand kids. They once pitched against Mike Trout.